1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to user interface design and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for gesture based copying of attributes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Software programmers design user interfaces for a variety of applications, such as for web page design. Designing the user interface of web pages involves formatting elements on a web page such as text blocks, labels, captions, input fields, and the like. User interface (UI) elements have attributes such as font, color, gradient, opacity, stroke style, and the like. Often, formatting a UI element (e.g. a target element) comprises copying attributes from another UI element (e.g. a source element) for consistency in web page design.
Currently, copying a desired attribute from one element to another element is accomplished through use of lengthy menu or other formatting operations, such as accessing a setting for the desired attribute of the source element, noting the attributed, and manually setting the attribute of the target element to be the same as the accessed setting of the source element.
For example, to set the height of a first element to be identical to a second element, a designer must access the dimension settings or properties of the second element, access the dimension settings of the first element, note the dimensions of the second element, and set the dimensions of the first element manually to be the same as the second element. Similarly, for applying a color attribute of a third element to the first element, the designer needs to access the color settings for the third element, access the color settings of the first element, and modify the color settings of the first element to those of the third element. For complex attributes, or for a high number of attributes, the number of steps involved for effecting a format operation on an element increases substantially. As a result, such a methodology for copying attributes is cumbersome and time consuming.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for gesture based copying of attributes.